God's influence

[orangatan]

Have nc for this but only becuase I am busy as it were on other threads.

I am having trouble getting my head around something.

I am a committed christian.

When things go wrong, and I am really just talking about very minor things that other people have done to you, how much of that has been orchestrated by God?
Any of it? None of it? Somewhere in between?

Thanks

I suppose God knows us, and what will happen to us, although we have free will to choose to have Faith in Him...

Something that is very difficult to fully comprehend, one of those very big concepts IMO.

I have the New Revised Standard Version. My mum tried to get me to have the King James, but I couldnt understand a word of it! So decided that it wasnt for me.

The NRSV has
"In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed."

ferrar Yes, I am coming to believe that we can be lead in terms of what Bible we are individually able to receive God's message most effectively. For some reason I get on with the King James, but then I found some of the older texts in English far easier to write about than those classed Modern Literature.

Why does the devil not have a chance of winning over god?

So we come back to you effectively saying god made us in his own image but with free will. Something not even he has?! Why would he give us an element that could and did/does have catastrophic repercussions? He knew we might rebel and hurt him and each other. He knew we were inferior and weak and he still let it go ahead?

i don't know. Some survived

Speechless. Head in hands.

head So you would prefer not to have free will?

Free will makes sense to me. I would rather someone choose to love, than someone being controlled and been made to love. Is it real love if you cannot choose it?

Why does the devil not have a chance of winning over god?

In this life people can be deceived by the Devil. However ultimately the Devil does not win. I am thankful for this.

Do expect me to be able to explain the Holocaust away? Some things are just so horrible it is impossible to comprehend them. I do believe Hitler's ideas were evil.

headinhands. Much of what you are describing goes back to Adam and Eve. As does a lot of the bible.

Does god have free will? Does he choose to love us or does he have to? Could he not love us, be horrible to us?

Of course God has free will.
He doesnt have to do anything He does not want to do.
His choice.

[dont want to go into cirrcular argument of why doesnt He..... btw]

Am thinking that christians are indeed ringfenced. Then God lifts the fence from day to day or more often, in order to teach us things.

Yes of course God has Free Will. But he will not go against Himself, His own nature.

We have Free Will, we can choose either to believe on Christ, choose Life and God or be deceived by the Devil and become a slave to sin. It is free in the sense we can choose to follow the destiny God has for us, as He is not willing that anyone should perish.

I think Christians are ringfenced or set aside in the sense that believing on Christ means we have access to the Redemption he bought for us. We can access God's Grace to overcome, through our Faith.

So the ring fence is not lifted, Grace is available through Faith, enabling us to overcome the evil, which is present in this world.

But being amongst other people with Faith can encourage us to exercise our own. Some of those meetings which happen, seemingly spontaneously, IMO are providential.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Muds47hvaV0

^Jarvis Cocker singing 'Something Changed'. Nice thoughts

If he can't go against himself he doesn't have free will though. So god gave humans a power he didn't have.

How come there is not a shred of evidence for this ring fence? I wouldn't think much of someone who could stop a rapist but didn't according to how much he liked a victim etc.

I'd be like 'you know how you can magically stop Superbad stuff happening to your friends? Why not do it for everyone? Any justification he gave me would be a stinking pile of horse crap.

"In order to teach us things"

Can you give us an example of how god might use a disease to teach one of his beloved followers?

Being true to oneself does not negate Free Will. Free Will means you can choose to make the right choice. God is good, He is the right choice by definition of who He is.

So why didn't god make us the same as him. Able to mess up but it being impossible for us to but still having free will somehow? He has it both ways so why didn't we?

We choose to accept God's Grace. It is available to all who believe on Christ.
If you do not even believe in Him how can you receive the power of His Grace? By not believing you are denying His Grace exists, so how would you expect to access it yourself.

A believer may be able to help via their Grace, but would you accept their help, if they explained the reason they helped because of their belief in God?

Let me spell it out again. God has free will but can't stuff things up because he is good. Why didn't he make us in his image so that we had free will but couldn't stuff up? If god is still choosing to love you even though he can't choose not to love you why didn't he make us the same?

We were made in His image and were good. We were corrupted due to choosing to believe Satan.

But then you know what I will say on this head I'm pretty sure we've had this conversation many times before. Why keep asking?

So you have to believe to get help? So babies then? They're on their own because the cognitively can't believe. As are people with moderate learning disabilities.

I am reconciled with my beliefs.

Adam and Eve headinhands. Adam and Eve.